Doubles
by Rosas-Sampaguita-Luzviminda
Summary: Nothing actually started when Cole said he likes pie, it just happened. The others just joke about him being replaced by a double. (Inspired by a comment I saw).
1. Alarm

**Gie-chan: Hi! Okay, I got this idea from a comment by MintyMagic74 on Deviantart about the pie thing. You'd probably get it if you watched Brent Miller's interview with Kirby Morrow (I forgot which part it was, hehe).**

 **Disclaimer: Everything here belongs to their rightful owners.**

* * *

It was in the early morning, too dark with the sun yet to rise over the horizon. Silence filled the living quarters of the newly-built Steep Wisdom, only to be broken by the shuffling footsteps echoing through the halls.

Trailing his hand across the wall, Jay tried making his way to the kitchen. Sleep still clouded some of his memory as he struggled to remember where the kitchen was and would have most likely missed the doorway had he not realized he was at his destination.

A soft yet audible sound of shifting made him slightly more alert. He whipped his head into the direction of the source of the sound.

It was coming from the fridge.

It was open.

Jay widened his eyes in hopes of being able to see the person going through the fridge this late- early in the morning.

Because the refrigeration unit they had didn't have a light, it was pretty unlikely that he'd be able to easily tell who it was.

Though, it was probably just Cole.

It was sort of normal to find him in the kitchen looking for something to eat nowadays.

Jay opened the cabinet and felt for a glass. He reached his hand further until his finger brushed a rather smooth edge. Right, this was where they keep their plates.

Closing it quietly, Jay opened the other one and once again tried to feel his way through the dark. He was successful in getting a glass and went to the sink to get water.

"Who's there?" The guy in the fridge really was Cole.

"An octopus," Jay answered before gulping down on the glass of water.

Taking out a plate from the fridge, Cole set them down and grabbed a fork.

''Hey Cole, why are you up so early?" Jay suddenly asked.

"Got hungry, I guess?" Cole replied.

"You sound unsure," Jay told him.

For a brief moment, they were just there in silence. The light of the sun was starting to brighten up the sky despite it yet to rise over the horizon. It wasn't much, but there was already a little hint of light.

A little klink from the fork and plate was heard.

Cole just sighed. "I don't really want to talk about it right now."

Jay decided not to press any further. He didn't want to go talk feelings at the moment too.

After he was done with the glass, Jay put it in the sink. The sun was already peeking out from the horizon. Light filtering through the windows and bathing the kitchen in a warm glow.

"Well, no use going to sleep now," Jay said. He glanced at the wall clock that showed it was already quarter to six.

"Yeah. And the alarm clock's gonna ring in three…" Cole started counting down. "Two…"

"One-"

The alarm clock didn't ring.

Jay turned to Cole, "ha! You were off by-" he was cut off as a ring broke the tranquil atmosphere, followed by various groans, "...three seconds!"

Then they heard a crash. Probably the alarm clock.

"Kai! It's on fire!"

"What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know!"

"Zane!"

"Wake up!"

Jay and Cole looked at each other.

"At least we weren't in that mess," Cole said.

"Zane, stop having visions and help us!"

"Lloyd, don't throw that thing at me!"

Another crash.

"Heh. They're handling it pretty well," Jay said.

* * *

The five ninja, Nya, and Wu were all having breakfast around the table. One might say that some of them did not like how their morning started.

To be fair, Kai, Lloyd, and Zane did have trouble with shutting off an alarm clock.

That was on fire.

And exploded.

The rest were spared of the rather...destructive morning.

"I'm pretty sure the alarm clock wasn't there when we went to sleep," Lloyd said.

"It wasn't," Kai said.

"It also appeared that it had some gunpowder inside," Zane added.

"It was loaded with fireworks," Kai deadpanned. He took another dumpling and ate it.

Cole couldn't help but give a small laugh as he went to get his breakfast. When he sat down with the plate, they all heard Jay gasp.

Everyone turned to him, and Jay pointed at the plate across the table with a shocked expression. They turned to Cole, who had a piece of the pie about to be eaten.

Cole looked at him with a confused expression, "what?"

"You're having pie?!" Jay exclaimed.

"Yeah," Cole shrugged, "so? I like pie."

Jay, once again, gasped, except more dramatically this time. Meanwhile, the rest were either just enjoying the show or going like, "huh?"

"Who are you and what have you done with the real Cole?!" Jay pointed accusingly at him.

Lloyd solemnly said, "all this time, and I never knew…" but his stifled laugh immediately diminished his sober expression.

"Well, this is getting unusual," Kai commented.

"Come on, it's not like all I eat are cakes and noodles," Cole explained. "Quit acting like the universe has gone mad."

"But it already did! It's a well-known fact that you like cake the best. You liking pie over cake is like saying Sensei Wu prefers coffee over tea!"

"Leave me out of your nonsense," Wu said from the corner of the table, "and please, do calm down, Jay. The incident earlier was a ruckus enough."

Jay sighed and sat back down, "yes, Sensei…" he said, though, he was still giving Cole suspicious looks throughout breakfast.

* * *

After they'd finished eating, Cole went ahead and started on the dishes. As Jay was about to leave the dining room, he kept his eyes on Cole.

Cole turned around to see Jay keeping his gaze upon him while slowly inching backwards towards the door, making an "I'm watching you," sign at him before Kai came and just pulled him away.

Turning back to the dishes, Cole continued washing them. "Overdramatic much today?" he muttered and shook his head.

* * *

 **Gie-chan: I was originally gonna make a comic about this, but I started arguing with myself on what style to use, so I just ended up writing it on .**

 **Gie-chan: Yeah, me, it's either do a cartoonish style and get more work done, or manga style to make it look cool. I just ended up typing it.**

 **Gie-chan: Speaking of typing, I'm still typing that one shot for another story, though it would appear that I won't get to finish it anytime soon because I'm gonna be practicing and reviewing for two contests this month...so much stuff to do in such little time that I even managed to forget what improvised meant earlier this morning.**

 **Man, this Author's Note is getting long.**


	2. What's Up?

**Gie-chan: Hello guys! I'm back again!**

 **School actually kept me busy. Contests, activities, and performance tasks are coming in left and right. Not that I'm complaining. It's just that I'm busy. Just so you know.**

 **Also, Sept. 8 is Mama Mary's birthday as well as our school directress'!**

 _Review Reply:_

 **Guest:** Aww, thanks! Also, this is still ongoing!

 **Disclaimer: Fanfiction, people.**

* * *

Cole could feel the other's glares on his back. That or they could actually beam lasers from their eyes with their elemental powers and Cole never knew about it until now.

Sure, whenever it's Cole's turn to cook, someone would usually be there to keep an eye on him. They'd sometimes think that he doesn't notice. But this time, all five of them were watching his every move. Kai, Zane, Lloyd, and Nya were somehow infected by Jay's paranoia, if that even makes sense.

It was starting to get kind of annoying.

Cole picked up the salt and glanced at the reflection on the shiny pan hanging in front of him on the wall, slowly tapping the salt shaker as he looked. Those guys were squeezed into the crack of the slightly open sliding door. Jay was at the bottom while Kai was at the very top.

Cole sighed. Then he realized, he could just move away from their limited field of vision.

Trying not to look suspicious as they were already wary of him enough, he casually strode to the left, as if he forgot something in the fridge. But in reality, he just wants to get their eyes off of him for a moment. Like seriously, they were watching him like a hawk.

* * *

'Shouldn't it only be one of us watching? Preferably Zane,' Kai whispered to them.

'Oh, shush. Cole's been acting strange and we need to make sure that-' Jay stopped when he noticed that Cole wasn't in front of the kitchen counter anymore. 'Where'd he go?!' he whisper-screamed.

Nobody saw where Cole had walked off to since they turned their attention to the one talking earlier. Sort of a bad move considering they were supposed to be watching him make a potentially poisonous or strangely nauseating concoction that he'd conjured up and make sure it won't end up as that.

Though Cole had been making dishes with better quality over that past two and a half years, there's no telling if he'd decide to go back to improvising or tweaking the recipe.

But, more or less, this is just a way for them to kill some extra time.

They tried shifting their positions to have a better view. Nothing but the kitchen.

"Nya, can you come over here for a moment?" Misako called from another part of the teashop.

Nya stood up from where she was crouching, "as much as I'd love to be a part of this, uh, 'spy mission,' I'll...just go now," she stepped back with every pause and made a run for it across the hallway. She was really feeling the weirdness from these guys.

Turning back to the slightly open sliding door, there's still no sign of the Master of Earth.

* * *

Cole tried to breathe as quietly as possible. Who knows what Zane has installed onto his auditory sensors after the upgrade, not to mention, the other guys have pretty sharp senses.

He listened as the shuffling behind the door continued, then Misako calling Nya, and her subsequent dashing off to another part of the teashop. Then the shuffling continued, with some whispers too soft for Cole to make out.

But then it came to a halt.

The door suddenly slid open and Kai entered the vicinity.

Cole held his breath, waiting for Kai to leave the kitchen. Though he probably won't.

"He's not here," Kai turned around and faced the door.

Too bad the ceiling wasn't high enough…

"Heeey, Kai. What's up?" Cole chuckled nervously as he held onto the wooden beams on the ceiling.

"You, apparently," Kai pointed out.

Jay poked his head through the door and gasped, "Cole! Get him!"

"Well, I'm out," Cole let go and landed next to Jay and dashed out into the hallway before either Zane or Lloyd could realize that they were supposed to stop him.

"Were we…?" Zane pointed to the direction Cole just ran off to.

"YES!" Jay exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air.

Jay, Lloyd, and Zane proceded to run after him, leaving Kai alone in the kitchen.

Kai peered into the contents of the the pan left on the stove. The stuff they were supposed to eat that night.

Although, to be honest, it does smell kind of good.

Then Cole quickly came in and stirred the dish with the spoon left on a plate then proceeded to taste it.

"Kai, could you please put this on a plate after the sauce starts to slightly boil? I'm kind of busy here. Thanks!" then Cole ran out the kitchen.

"Sure," Kai shrugged as he left.

Then Jay came barreling in, "have you seen him?"

"How in Ninjago did you just miss him? You two were literally seconds apart!" Kai pointed out.

* * *

 **Gie-chan: It was short, I know.**

 **Please be informed that this fanfic has a fluctuating schedule of updates. If it goes unupdated for more than half a year, I'm probably busy, dead, having internet problems, other technical problems, having a bad case of writer's block, or just procrastinating.**

 **Anyways, on a more important note, thanks to you guys who read, reviewed, faved, and followed so far! I loved all your reviews, even if they were short, they were short and sweet!**

 **Okay, bye for now!**


	3. Seriously, What Is Up?

**Gie-chan: Hi guys! It's been like, more than a month since I last updated this and a third of a year since I last updated that other story. I've been busy with school activities and contests, you know, the usual excuses.**

 _Review Reply:_

 **Willow Julien:** Hello! Thanks for dropping a review! Huh, probably a coincidence, I guess, since I haven't really heard of it before. I might check it out. Thanks again!

 **Disclaimer: See the other disclaimers for this disclaimer just states the author's denial of the claim over the property over the characters of Ninjago.**

* * *

That night, Jay's suspicions were proven to be real...

At least, that was what would be assumed.

To be honest, the times when Cole does make up a decent meal, Jay ends up getting caught up with something. And really, Cole does tend to do some experimenting with food that ends up in a disaster every other time and whenever Jay is there.

So naturally, he'd think that someone else made it.

Cole stopped to look at Jay, who had the weirdest unreadable expression on his face.

Kai leaned over to Nya and whispered, "Do we still have to play along with it?"

Nya just gave him a shrug. "Though I have to admit, this is delicious," she complimented.

Jay leaned over to Kai, whispering ever so harshly, "Don't you guys see? He's cooking us this creamy deliciousness to gain our favor and love him even more! We don't even know if this is our brother we know and love!"

Lloyd and Zane cast each other a confused glance, Cole and Sensei Wu both sighed, and Misako just ate in silence.

"I'm tellin' you guys! There is an imposter in the vicinity!" Jay said.

Kai let go of his spoon and buried his face in his hands, "Jay. Just eat already. Please," he groaned.

* * *

Later that night, as Cole made his way to their bedroom, he was tackled to the floor.

"Wha-? Hey! Oumfph!"

His face was pressed firmly onto the floorboards while stuck in a position that rendered him unable to properly move his appendages.

"Don't move."

"Sherioushly, Jay, would you jush shtof alreadhi?"

Jay still had Cole pinned under him, "Not until you tell me what you did with my friend!"

"I'w sherioush!" Cole exclaimed. With half his face pressed down like that, it's making him soud weird, like, he's squished or something.

Cole felt Jay tighten his grip on both his wrists and tried to lift him up. Unfortunately, with the way they were positioned, Jay only managed to pull Cole halfway up before accidentally letting go of him.

And with that, he swiftly made a run for it.

"Hey!" Jay screeched and ran after him.

Cole looked behind him and saw Jay hot on his trail. He knew he couldn't outrun him so, taking advantage of his garments, he dove into the shadows on the first turn.

He held his breath as he waited for Jay to dash right past him. He let out a silent sigh of relief, but only to take it back when Jay turned around and ran back.

"You think you can hide from me?"

A beat.

"Yes."

Cole then he quickly ran straight to the wall and kicked up. The momentum enabling him to easily reach the ceiling where he crawled up between the beams. Jay was quick to follow suit and a chase went on in the ceiling.

* * *

The two ended up disturbing all the residents in the small tea shop that night. And after that, Cole had decided to sleep in the Bounty, seeing as Jay was being all crazy and all.

All was back to normal, except for the alarm clock that was blown up. They still haven't found the culprit behind the fireworks in the clock.

The Ninja did find a note, however, saying it was an early New Year's present despite it being a good few weeks away. At least it sort of explains the fireworks in it.

But like, who does that? They pretty much already have a fire hazard with Kai and Jay around, which is why they don't buy fireworks 'till the last minute.

The Ninja were out that afternoon trying to locate a big fish terrorizing fishermen. No luck finding it so far.

"Anything, Zane?" Kai asked Zane, who was scanning over the water with P.I.X.A.L. on the dock.

"There are no signs of disturbance from the fish here," he replied and turned to face Kai. "We believe we may take a while," Zane told his brother.

Behind him, far, far away, the strong glow of Jay's dragon can be seen from afar. Kai saw that Jay was almost eaten by a giant fish leaping out of the water.

Zane noticed Kai's change of expression and turned around, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Did you see something, Kai?"

Kai blinked, "I think I just saw something trying to eat Jay," he stated.

"What?" Zane turned around, again.

Jay was flying farther away, then proceeded to fly in circles, before flying off farther again, and looked like he was standing on his dragon and arguing with the ocean before sitting back down and flying even farther away.

Kai contacted Jay through his communicator, "Uh, Jay, where are you going?"

" _It got away!"_ Jay exclaimed.

"What got away?"

" _The fishy! A BIG fishy!"_

After a long while of trying to find and capture the fish, which they later found out to be a mutant Fangfish, they decided to call it a day and continue searching the next morning.

At least they knew what attracted the fish.

And they will continue trying to catch it for the next few weeks until the day they finally got to send it to the aquarium.

* * *

 **Gie-chan: The storyline is going to continue after Skybound and just a little while before DotD. I might take a while to type the chapters on this and the one-shots on Words Into Stories since we're usually busier at this time of year. Sorry if it was short. And if someone was OOC, it's part of the story.**

 **If you could see me through the screen, you'd see me laughing like I'm crying.**

 **No, I'm not going crazy.**

 **...wait.**

 **Nope.**

 **Though, my friend at school named my blonde wig Barbra.**

 **Heh.**

 **Anyways, thanks to all of you dropping by this story, and have a wonderful day, night, wherever your timezone is!**

 **Oh, and an early Happy Day of the Departed guys!**


	4. The Box Ain't Even That Important

**Gie-chan: Heeeeyyyy...there.**

 **So...I'm not dead yet, even though my brother tried slicing me with a glowy sword on New Year and I tried stabbing him back (don't worry, they were just plastic toys that act like lightsabers). How's 2018 for you so far?**

 _Review Replies:_

 **For both the Guests:** Thank You so much, glad you two enjoyed this! And don't worry, there is still more, but I can't guarantee consistency in the updates.

* * *

"Here you go. Do be careful with this box. We wouldn't want anything to happen to it now, do we?" an old woman told them as she handed the box to Zane.

Zane carefully took the box and nodded, "we promise to deliver this to Sensei Wu in one piece," he said.

The ninja were currently in a small house in the middle of a forest. Wu had the six of them pick up a package from an old acquaintance of his. It seemed rather important seeing as all of them were sent to get it.

Before they went through the door, the woman told them, "oh, and don't let it get shaken up or else it'll explode," she said n a cheery tone.

"Of course," Kai replied and the went outside.

They decided against using their dragons in fear of making it actually explode if the woman was right. And they certainly do not want another incident like what happened last year with the alarm clock.

Walking on the sandy path next to a clear stream, they had been guessing what was inside. Though, it didn't really last that long after they'd settled was probably just some magical tea. It was a package for Sensei Wu, after all.

The path was pretty long. Zane had estimated it on being about 23.14 km until they reach the nearest village. It's...a pretty long way.

They had started to settle into the silence, with only the steady flow of water next to the path. Then Jay decided to break the silence.

"Hey, it's gonna be a long way, wanna sing a song?" Jay suggested.

"Sure, why not," Cole agreed.

"I'm up for it," Kai said.

Zane simply nodded. "What shall we sing?"

"How about one of the classics?" Jay turned to face them, as he was near the front of the group.

"The Weekend Whip?" Cole suggested.

"I was thinking more along the lines of A Thousand Bottles of Tea on the Wall, but that works too," Jay stated.

For the next three minutes, they were singing the lyrics of the original Weekend Whip, each of them having their own part to sing and singing altogether during the chorus.

And then the very long song about tea started.

It went on and on and on, from a thousand bottles until the last ten.

As they reached the second bottle, they heard a low rumble. All heads turned to Cole.

"Hey, wasn't me," he told them.

Then there was the sound again.

"Jay?"

"Uh…" Jay shifted uncomfortably under their gaze.

"Why don't we take our luch break now? It's already nearing noon after all," Lloyd suggested. All of them happily complied.

* * *

They settled under the shade of a tall tree, sitting comfortably on the grass. The precious box of mystery-though-its-probably-just-tea was set right next to Zane and within sight of the ninja.

Unbeknownst to them, an unknown figure was silently watching, hidden behind the greenery.

Well, that is until she slipped on a rock and jostled the bushes nearby, almost hitting her head on another rock, but managed to catch herself before she hit it. She almost let out a yelp, but stopped herself.

Lloyd, who was nearest to the bush, threw a glance at her direction, but didn't mind it much and went back to his sushi.

The person let out a soft breath of relief as her hiding spot was left undiscovered.

Then she heard the ninja getting ready to leave and continue on the path back home.

As soon as she concluded that they were far enough, she carefully poked her head above the bush for a better view. Running behind a nearby tree, she silently hoped no one would notice her presence as she followed them.

* * *

"I sense that we are being followed," Zane whispered to his teammates, looking straight ahead, "We must keep our guard up."

Jay looked around his surroundings. Nothing seems too suspicious...until he saw something move between the bushes near the stream. The disturbance seemed too much to be a small critter. It kinda seems like a human or something similar in size.

They walked over a slightly more elevated area of the path, which rose much higher than the water level of the stream. The bushes that lined the stream so far had stopped, which gave a clearer view of the waters below, glistening under the rays of the sun.

"Did you hear that?" Lloyd asked them in a whisper. Kai, who was beside him, nodded.

Lloyd turned to look at his other teammates, and in doing so, found someone, who he assumed was who Zane sensed was following them, out in the open without the bushes covering her path right next to the stream.

They both locked eyes.

"Oh shoot, oh shoot!"

In a panic, she momentarily lost her balance and started leaning towards the stream, flailing her arms around, trying to regain balance, only to fail and completely fall backwards.

Jay, being the nearest, quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her farther from the edge.

"Alright," Kai stepped forward, "explain yourself."

Seemingly intimidated by him, she slightly shrunk back. "I...uh," she pushed back some of her black hair as she spoke and cleared her throat, mumbling something afterwards.

Nya sighed, "Come on, Kai, you're scaring her." She brushed past her brother and faced the girl, "Don't mind my brother. He's just like that sometimes. Why were you following us anyway?"

"I sort of got lost and thought I'd…" she kept looking away then down, letting her bangs cover her eyes.

Lloyd spoke up, "How about you tag along with us?" he offered.

"Uh, I'm headed to Ninjago City. Is it alright if you, you know, uh…" She trailed off.

"Sure, we are headed there after all. Oh, and by the way, what's your name?"

She contemplated on whether or not she'd tell them her name.

"Rin."

* * *

Kai was suspicious.

With the girl popping out of nowhere, and so far away from any type of civilization except for the old lady, it just seems weird.

Not to mention, she seems to be a little too wary of the other ninja, except for Lloyd. They'd usually find her keeping up a little more conversation with him than the others, just like when Jay tried to start a conversation earlier, she quickly managed to drive it to a dead end.

Kai turned his head to see that Rin looked to have been staring at him for a while. After a couple of moments, she turned to look at something else.

What's up with her?

They have been walking for a while now, already passed through a village, and pretty much only a hop skip and a jump away from Ninjago City.

By the time they had arrived, the sky was already painted in shades of magenta and blue.

"Hey," Rin lightly poked at Lloyd's arm, "Thanks for letting me tag along."

"No problem. Are you sure you're going to be fine going alone?" Lloyd asked.

"Oh I'm sure," she waved goodbye and turned on her heels.

She walked farther away from them, eventually disappearing around the corner.

"This game's gonna be a piece of cake. Hehe."

* * *

 **Gie-chan: If you already don't like the girl OC, you'll probably like her even less in the next few chapters, hehe.**

 **(Or this character could totally backfire on me and you guys absolutely love her, I don't know.)**

 **What am I even doing?**

 **Yeah, sorry for the long lack of updates. Seriously, those contests and activities from October to December really drained my drive to write. For a while there, I thought my arm was gonna fall off with how much I've been drawing continuously.**

 **(This kinda took me months to write. I've already written the first part out before doing chapter 3. Man…)**

 **Anyways, Thanks for reading, and I hoped you had a good holiday and starting off 2018 with a great start!**


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